Watch Them Go: CHS Graduates 171, Complex 252, Territory-Wide 924 In 2015

ST. CROIX — Wednesday and Thursday looked normal to the unknowing eyes as residents went about their way, nonchalantly following the path they tread daily. But for the parents, students, faculty and staff of the Central and Educational Complex high schools who gathered to celebrate the important milestone that is graduation, those days were anything but.

On Wednesday, 171 CHS students, 71 young men and 100 young women graduated. On Thursday, 252 SCEC graduates received their diplomas during a ceremony at the Island Center for the Performing Arts, including 117 young men.

Vibrant Celebrations

Emboldened by family and friends, the graduating students were beaming with pride as cheers roared from CHS’s gymnasium and Island Center. Various former graduating Classes were at their alma mater’s locations, too, including the CHS Class of 1995, giving a scholarship worth $1,500.

St. Croix Central High School 2015 Graduates

Combined, 924 high school students graduated throughout the territory this year. One-third, or more than 300 of them were either in the National Honor Society, or were honor students, and they’ve gained access to over $21 million in scholarships and grants.

Dignitaries, including the territory’s governor Kenneth E. Mapp, lauded the students for their achievement while encouraging them to keep working hard.

To receive your high school diploma and do nothing with it is like not receiving a diploma at all. – Kurt Vialet.

“I am amazed at the work that you students have been doing in our public high schools,” said Mapp at the CHS ceremony. At the SCEC event, the governor said while the government hasn’t lived up to its responsibility of assuring that students are in the best learning environments, he promised that his administration would do better.

“The future is about doing better. It’s about change, about learning from your past mistakes and correcting them,” the territory’s leader said. The governor also reminded the graduates that they come from a “strong, vibrant and proud people.”

While giving her valedictorian address, CHS’ Bria James transformed the temporarily quiet gymnasium into an orchestra of human voices singing the same song of hope with a fearless determination to succeed.

“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway,” James said, repeating the renowned words of Mother Theresa.

St. Croix Educational Complex 2015 Graduates

At the SCEC gathering, Anayah Ferris, giving the salutatorian address, energized the 252 graduates with uplifting words, making the appeal that they don’t base their success on the words of “dead men,” but that they paint their own destinies with unbreakable resoluteness.

The keynote speakers were also powerful, with Dr. Afiya Fredericks, SCEC Class of 2015, urging the students to pay forward what they’ve been blessed with and never turn their backs on the territory. She also sought to remind the students what being intelligent is about.

“Being smart, whether it is in the context of school or life in general, is about working hard and putting in the necessary effort to accomplish your goals,” Fredericks said.

CHS’ keynote, Shawna K. Richards, took a different route, making prominent in her speech the ills of social media and urging the students to, every now and again, deactivate.

“I I truly believe that all we’re missing is what’s taking place in our very own lives,” she said. “We miss chances to make memories because we’re too busy recording.  We miss chances to have real conversations. We miss opportunities to be real because sometimes social media changes how we express ourselves; and how we perceive ourselves.”

Senator Kurt Vialet, longtime educator and former principal of SCEC, spoke on the behalf of the 31st Legislature, gave a brief history of the school that he administered from its inception in 1995, and lauded the progress the institution has made over the years.

“Complex has now become the largest school on the island of St. Croix and the second  largest school in the Virgin Islands,” he said.

The senator encouraged the students to have a plan for their lives and spoke directly to their parents about helping their children map out a trajectory.

“Parents, I hope that you have sat with your child and you have carefully planned out what is going to happen after today; because I’ve told students in the past as the [former] principal of this school, that to receive your high school diploma and do nothing with it is like not receiving a diploma at all.”

As the students made their way to the stages at CHS and Island Center to receive their diplomas, the story on their faces relayed a message of teens who were overjoyed to have succeeded in completing a major chapter in their quest to realize their dreams. Some smiled, others laughed, some even danced a bit, striding across the stages eagerly waiting to greet family members with the pride of one who’s just won gold, ready to go for more.